A whole lot of shakin' going on: what's new on all the municipal projects throughout the city

 If you've been paying attention, there's been a lot of work going on
at various places throughout the city. As we get closer to summer's end, I thought I'd bring everyone up to speed on just where we stand with each project.

The new municipal water tower

Perhaps more than anything else this summer I am asked frequently if the new tower is operational yet. The answer is 'no'. Why? Well, I'll share with you what I've been told: the company that painted the tower (both inside and out) painted the insides a bit too thickly. Apparently, it's a safety concern so they had to sandblast the thing on the inside to remove a layer or two.

Having said this, I'm told that they will begin disinfecting the tank and filling it on August 13-14. About a week later samples will be taken and pending those results we will be fully functional come August 20. I can't wait.

The Gotham Sports Complex

Construction began right around Memorial Day and has proceeded right along with no real hiccups to speak of. The asphalt and cement were laid, the fencing posts were erected and the fencing installed. On Monday, all the basketball poles and backboards were installed. The courts, both Pickleball and Basketball/Tennis, will be painted as you read this. All things are on course to be finalized in time for our September 14 ribbon-cutting. If we have a fall like last year very shortly you should hear the plink-plunk of pickleball and thumping of basketballs coming from a sports complex on City Park Drive. I can't wait.

The 38-acres/Swiderski development

from SC Swiderski-Chetek

While the earthmovers have yet to show up on the grounds of the old
breeder farm on Knapp Street, we are currently firming up plans for the ground-breaking ceremony set to occur on Tuesday, August 26 from 12-1 pm. Once they break ground, S.C. Swiderski promises to complete the project within two years. Contrary to the rumor mill this will not be low-income housing or – curiously – housing for illegal aliens. Nope. This is a 116-unit housing development, primarily rentals, that hopefully will attract new residents to our community. If you want to see the scope of it, check out the video at SCSwiderski-Chetek

Back in December, Swiderski representatives gave a presentation at the city council meeting that was reported by the Chetek Alert. According to that article, apart from the four

single-family homes the rest of the 116 units will be rentals in various floor plans generally ranging between $1,100-$1,850 per month and to include heat, water, sewer, cable, WIFI, trash removal and lawn care. I can't wait.

The old Waste Water Treatment Plant

This past spring demolition began at the old Wastewater Treatment
Plant (WWTP). If you've dropped off your recycling lately you may have noticed that that project has come to a standstill. What gives? Apparently tearing down an old WWTP is a little bit more involved than, say, tearing down most other structures. One factor that can complicate demolition is that by law, the ground on which the plant stood has to be deposited in a safe manner. I'm assured that they're working the problem and sooner than later the job will be completed. I can't wait.

Original picture courtesy of Mark Peterson
(SBR circled in red)

The new Waste Water Treatment Plant

Thought we were done with that project? Of course, we are. But a
design challenge presents itself. The Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) – the structure that is in the field immediately to the south of the plant – needs a cover for it to prevent freezing of water lines to it. This was something that our guys dealt with all last spring. Why wasn't it part of the original project? you may ask. There is a longer explanation but the short answer is the engineers didn't think we needed one. But now it appears that we do. Public Works Director Drew Smith informed the council last month that it is his recommendation that we pursue construction of such a dome over the SBR to prevent freeze-ups this coming winter. The hope is that we can go to bid sooner than later and have it covered before the real cold weather settles in. I can't wait.

While the Canadian wildfires have been the source of the unsettling haze in our air this past summer, the dust of these combined projects should be a welcome sign to us that stuff is gettin' done as Jerry Lee Lewis would put it 'cause a whole lot of shakin' is going on. And yeah, just like you, I can't wait for these things to be good and done.

Unfinished business: a lot of moving parts

Old Cafe...

As we draw closer to the end of another year we have a lot of loose strings yet to tie up and hopefully in knots that won't slip. Among them:

The old Chetek Cafe building

Whether or not you agreed with the city purchasing this property, we feel it was a good investment in our community. A business owner who had his property up for sale for years (and years) was able to get out, another business owner whose business was expanding was able to move in and if nothing comes of the idea of a future governmental building at the corner of Stout and Second, at the very least we'll have a nice piece of real estate for a future business to locate to.

...and New

After we purchased the building, we were approached by a couple of local business owners about renting space to them until we had the structure razed. Admittedly, we were open to that possibility recognizing that the process of securing the grant money for demolishing an old structure might take some time. Until we inspected the place after Norbert and Patty had moved on down the street. The building was in worse shape than we could guess. There was no way the city was going to put so much as a dime into it to keep it viable for another season. So we informed the one tenant we inherited at purchase time that he had to vacate by October 1. After he moved out we had the place inspected for asbestos and given its age we were not surprised to learn that it was rife with it.

This past summer and fall, I had a few folks suggest to me that at the very least we paint the place given the eye sore that it was. But we're hoping it won't see the spring and that sometime this winter it will go the way of the dinosaur.

The old Jost Law Office building

Purchased in the fall of 2016, originally the idea of obtaining this piece of property was to raze this structure as well and create a parking lot for The Center. But due to its proximity to the Mosaic building and due to the fact that this old structure has been built upon several times over the years we have been unsuccessful (yet) in attracting anyone to tear it down. A year ago I reached out to Enosh Yoder, a local Amish man who has a knack for this sort of thing but the more he walked through the structure the bigger his eyes seemed to get. You have an old building with at least four roofs on it (shakes, two layers of shingles and metal sheeting to boot), interior walls that have been built out and ceilings that have been dropped down which all spell “buyer beware” to a prospective demolition man.

In the meantime, following some of the conversations that arose regarding property purchases in recent years the “Property Committee” was brought out of mothballs and re-started. While the council will still have the final word future purchases or major renovations will be vetted first by the Property Committee. So the thinking is before we tear down the old Jost building to make way for a future parking lot let's allow the Property Committee to weigh in on it. Of course, that slows the process down – or may gum it up entirely if the committee feels that the property would be better used in a different way. Personally, I still think The Center needs a parking lot but we'll wait and see what the others have to say about it. But just as it is with the old Cafe building, this propety, were we to tear it down, will have to be tested for abestos but we cannot do that until the two tenants presently renting there vacate. And of course we can't terminate their lease until we are in agreement that a parking lot is the best use for that piece of property. As they say, there's a lot of moving parts.

Sadly the eagle has landed...elsewhere (he just wore out)

Main Steet Park

Last year the city purchased the vacant lot on the east side of Ohde's from the Moulettes as an addition to Main Street Park. In the fall of 2017 our guys tore up the cement pavement that was buried under the grass, spread grass seed and kept the yard mowed this past year while the Parks Committee tried to hash out a re-design for the park. After the tragic loss of Natalie Turner last fall, originally the idea was to erect a small piece of artwork in her memory and build a low wall surrounding the small courtyard on Second Street. Some generous individuals from town contributed to this project or volunteered their labor when it was time to roll up our sleeves and begin the work. This past summer around Liberty Fest WEAU-TV 13 did a short interview with Parks Committee chair Donna Bachowski about these ideas. Unfortunately for reasons that were not communicated to me the major donor for this part of the renovations backed out. What's more, the school informed us that a memorial for Natalie was going to be erected somewhere on school grounds which made mute any further conversation about some kind of memorial to her at the park. In the meantime, the weather became colder and now we've pretty much lost our window for any kind of concrete work this year.

Before the crew dug up the old slab and planted grass seed

What of the $20,000 donated to the city this past September from the former tornado relief fund? It's still there and will be used for future improvements at Main Street Park. Hopefully over the winter the Parks Committee can pin down just where we want to start. The general schematics we're presently looking at keep the low retaining wall around the courtyard, involve pavers in the east yard and perhaps an elevated platform for future outdoor concerts and the like (the current pavilion cannot be added onto without endangering the integrity of the structure).

The old Jennie O's breeder farm purchase

The other major property the city acquired this past year was the 39 acres where the old Jennie O's Breeder Farm used to stand. The former manager's home, presently vacant, came with the purchase. One of things we are trying to come to grasp with is what Dave Armstrong, Barron County Economic Development Executive Director, says about our community: “You want people to move to Chetek but they have no place to move to.” We have a dearth of both rental property and affordable housing. Note: when we say “affordable housing” we do not mean “low income housing”. We feel Chetek has plenty of that. No, we're talking starter homes, duplexes, and “twindos” (two homes side by side that share a common wall). We have no interest in developing this ourselves. So we've been listening to some proposals from various companies who might be interested in developing this property. One of the barriers in moving forward with any development is going to be infrastructure, specifically roads, sewer and water. Due to its proximity to Bailey Lake, not one drop of water from this future development can empty into it. Those kinds of things – water and sewer systems – come with big price tags that tend to scare developers away. The good news is one of our Tax Increment Districts (we have three) will be paid off early next year. At November's council meeting the council will vote on extending it one additional year (allowed by law) and use the tax dollars netted in this district toward building the infrastructure we need.

The manager's former home comes with the 39 acres

Lake View Cemetery

While I just wrote on this matter last week (see We may have inherited a cemetery), suffice to say an official arrangement with the Town of Chetek has yet to be brokered. Our current position is we will contribute to the mowing expenses as well as to the salary of the sexton. However, since the front part (on city land) is already full, we feel the Township should be the lead partner on this since the majority of it resides on Township land. Any future full burials will be done in that part. The council will weigh in on this at our next meeting.

So that's a lot of things up in the air that have yet to land or take full shape. I'd like to see some of them get pinned down sooner than later but often municipal government matters move at the pace that military ones do (or so I'm told) and 'hurry up and wait' is our watchword for the time being.